In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced that to restrict global temperature rise to 1·5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must decrease 45% by 2030 compared with 2010, and reach net zero by 2050.1
Lancet Planet Health 2021; 5: e654–58
As a lower-middle-income country (LMIC), South Africa (SA) bears
the burden of maternal and neonatal mortality similar to other sub-
Saharan African countries. According to the Saving Mothers Report
2017/19, there has been a progressive and sustained reduction
in institutional maternal mortality... (iMMR) in the past three triennia
(2010-2019), from 320 per 100,000 live births to 120 per 100,000 live
births.
According to the Rapid Mortality Survey, the country’s infant mortality
rate has declined from 29 deaths per 1000 live births in 2014 to 25
deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018. The institutional neonatal death
rate showed a slight decrease from 12,7 deaths per 1,000 live births in
2016 to the current level of 12 per 1,000 live births and has remained
static at this level for the past three years (saDHIS).
Working towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of reducing maternal mortality to below 70 per 100 000 live births and neonatal mortality to 12 deaths per 1000 live births, South Africa aims to reduce institutional maternal mortality, neonatal mortality and stillbirths by 50% by 2030.
This Maternal, Perinatal and Neonatal Health Policy provides a
framework for the delivery of quality, comprehensive, and integrated
MNH services and will guide the development and review of guidelines
and related MNH interventions, including strengthening of the service
delivery platform, governance, leadership and accountability for
the provision of quality MNH services, development of advocacy
messages, and guiding civil society priorities and community
initiatives. The policy will also guide the development and review of
academic curricula and the setting of research priorities.
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Lancet Glob Health 2020Published OnlineNovember 27, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30449-6
Updated 10 August 2020
This document presents an essential medicines list (EML) to manage patients in intensive care units (ICUs) with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, which includes active ingredients with dosage form and concentration, and are preferably in the WHO Model Lists of Essent...ial Medicines 2019; based on clinical presentations and symptoms identified and prioritized in World Health Organization (WHO) and Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines and the evidence presented in these guidelines.
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The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on the use of pooled sample testing strategy in coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
testing laboratories of the African Union Member States for scaling up SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid testing capacity with the available resources. The current document descr...ibes the effect of factors such as the prevalence of COVID-19 in the population to be tested, the homogeneity of pools, and the sensitivity of the molecular test in optimal pool size determination. It also highlights the importance of monitoring the prevalence of COVID-19 in a population to be tested and proper validation of the test, to limit the potential for false-negative results. Validation studies to determine the optimal pool size by testing laboratories are recommended as the optimum approach. A safe, simple ‘two-stage pooling’ option has been indicated in this guidance to be used by laboratories until such validation can be achieved.
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Compilation of campaign materials
Accessed on 29 September 2020
It is intended for use among clinicians taking care of moderate to severe COVID-19 cases.
The COVID-19 outbreak has brought with it the need for improved critical care for patients who develop severe disease. The majority of COVID-19 patients present with mild to moderate illness, 15% develop sever...e illness and about 5% develop critical conditions needing intensive care unit (ICU) care, requiring noninvasive or invasive ventilation
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This progress report reviews recent gains, new developments and remaining challenges as countries approach the 2020 targets of the Start Free Stay Free AIDS Free framework.
The Ideal Clinic manual has been developed to assist managers at various levels of healthcare service provision to correctly interpret and understand the requirement for achieving the elements as depicted in the Ideal Clinic framework/dashboard. It can therefore be regarded as a reference document w...hich guides the managers to determine the status of Ideal Clinic framework/dashboard elements in a facility.
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This interim guidance has been updated with advice on safe and appropriate home care for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and on the public health measures related to the management of their contacts.
As of 15 May 2020, more than 4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including more than 285,000 deaths have been reported to WHO. The risk of severe disease and death has been highest in older people and in persons with underlying noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as hypertension, cardiac diseas...e, chronic lung disease and cancer.
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Accessed: 02.05.2020
These interim IPC recommendations for health settings have been developed through the contributions of many individuals and institutions, such as the Centers for Disease Control-Kenya; ITECH; US Agency for International Development (USAID) Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceu...tical Services (MTaPS) Program; and WHO that are committed to ensuring that the transmission of COVID-19 to HCWs and the public within the health care setting is limited. The Ministry of Health (MOH) through the Directorate of Health Standards Quality Assurance and Regulations wishes to thank all the contributing authors led by the sub-committee on case management and IPC for the COVID-19 response for their expertise and time given to writing these guidelines.
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The purpose of these guidelines is to give practical advice to doctors so that all services and models of care used by doctors and health workers are encouraged to consider the use of telemedicine as a part of normal practice. These guidelines will assist the medical practitioner in pursuing a sound... course of action to provide effective and safe medical care founded on current information, available resources, and patient needs to ensure patient and provider safety.
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The COVID-19 Table-Top Exercise (TTX) is a simulation package which uses a progressive scenario together with series of scripted specific injects to enable participants to consider the potential impact of an outbreak in terms of existing plans, procedures and capacities. The aim of the TTX is to st...rengthen national levels of readiness against the virus through a series of facilitated group discussions.
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